Friday, May 12 2006 14:55 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Government today (May 12, 2006) assured the Rajya Sabha that essential drugs would not come under the new patent regime and companies manufacturing patented drugs would not be closed down.

Replying to Supplementary during Question Hour, Chemical and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the companies manufacturing patented drugs would not be shut down and will be paying royalty.

In reply to a query from Nominated Member and media personality Shobhna Bhartia on whether the government will treat the decision of the Supreme Court to order a leading pharma company to return the overcharged amount as a benchmark for other companies, the Minister said steps were being taken in this direction.

He said the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had raised a demand of Rs 694.07 as overcharged amount from 249 pharma companies.

"Of this a sum of Rs 99.16 crore have been recovered upto March 2006 as overcharged amount," he said.